big-up, v.

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Jan 18, 2008 1:18 PM, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> A verb on the rise...

Now featured in my OUPblog column:

http://blog.oup.com/2008/01/big-up/

One noteworthy development that I talk about in the column is the
change from a verb-particle construction ("big up X" or "big X up") to
"big-up" as a single entity, inflected as "big-ups", "big-upped",
"big-upping". In print the inflectable version usually takes a hyphen,
but not in this early Usenet cite:

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http://groups.google.com/group/alt.rave/msg/58a3909dbd4f7067
alt.rave, Jan. 22, 1995
can you blame levy? the man who took jungle to the top of the pops was
on an indie label the whole time while doing it. true, he acted like a
fool saying he big upped jungle and all that nonsense, but no one
takes him seriously anyway.
----

--Ben Zimmer

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